Public Monuments in Contemporary Belgrade: Between Stumbling Blocs and Invisibility

Abstract

This essay is an analysis of monuments and memorial locations in Serbia, particularly in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, during the contemporary transition phase. Estethical and artistic, but also political side of these monuments and their role in the early 21st century society is being observed in the paper. The research looks into the history of the monuments on the territory of Belgrade and explores the states of the monument heritage from the previous (socialist) period of the second half of the 20th century and cases of demolishing or replacing monuments with those ideologically relevant later on. The paper includes mapping of the new monuments built in memory of the unsettled disintegration of SFRJ during the 1990s as well as their urban context. It also looks for the reasons of non-existence of so called counter-monuments or participatory monuments in Belgrade and for building of a larger number of classical statues. It has been concluded that the monuments in Belgrade became the ‘stumbling stone’ of every constructive analysis and criticism of the urbanities and their memorial places, but at the same time ‘invisible’ not only in the way described by Robert Musil. Amongst these two determinants, the public monuments in Belgrade built in the beginning of the 21st century have been observed here.